At the time FSM released the album version of King Kong (the ‘76 one), I was massively impressed with them for doing it. I love it. (Rumour has it I'm a John Barry fan.)

Of course, as a score, it’s as badly in need of expansion as many of the old Bond albums were. But, back then, it just wasn't going to happen. No way. And someone wise once told me, “you can’t put your life on hold waiting for ‘what ifs’ and ‘maybes’.” So the album (which is a great, great album anyway) was the best we could have hoped for then and we got it.

Since then, of course, times have changed. Certain studios have been “broken”, as one person put it. (Personally, I think it’s that they were broken before.)

The thing is, wouldn’t it be nice if we could all go back and now do a proper expanded release of this, and other scores in the same boat. Ah, but. In such a limited collector's market, where's the viability in doing that? Surely, there are many other things to do which, once an album version is out, are a higher priority anyway. (Things that haven't been done at all.)

Yeah, you’re right. Forget it.

Still, wouldn’t it be a shame if scores issued as ‘album versions’ never got expanded at all, just because we didn’t wait for something we didn't know was going to happen? So, I just started wondering.

Now, I don’t know if this is possible. And I don' t speak for FSM or anyone else, okay. Just me and my warped head. Imagine if someone took two scores in this same boat and issued a single, say, 1,500 run disc containing only the unreleased cues from those two scores. (Okay, let me dream unrealistically big here. King Kong and Moonraker. Yes, I know.) It’s not ideal but it means the more passionate collector can get the additional music and organise ‘expanded’ versions on their i-Pods or whatever, without crunching the market for the already-out-there album version.

Something tells me the idea just doesn’t float. But then again, you never know. It’s just an idea.